A Past Remembered
by Emerald1
Summary: The team pauses for some important news.


**a/n - Just a one shot, but lays a few clues that I'll pick up later. No, I haven't forgotten about other stories, but this one was for a challenge and wouldn't leave me alone.**

A Past Remembered

"Tony."

The hissed calling of his name caught his attention and Tony DiNozzo looked up . McGee was staring as Director Vance came down the stairs. Before he could ask, he saw what had attracted his friend's attention. It had been a quiet Monday as they caught up on paperwork, which made the red tape in Vance's hand a surprise. Even Gibbs put down his cup as Vance walked up to the Wall.

Vance turned back and looked at the team, an expression of amazement on his face. "I just heard from the SecNav." Instead of explaining further, he returned his attention to the wall and stretched a piece of red tape across the photo of Osama Bin Laden before pressing it firmly in place.

Gibbs was the first to react, on his feet instantly. "When? How?"

The Director continued to stare at the photo, the red slash across the hated face looking almost surreal. "He was located at a compound in Pakistan and the President sent a Seal Team to take him out." As Vance continued to recount the details that ZNN would repeat a hundred times later that night, the team gathered behind him, staring at the photo that had glared down on them for the last ten years.

Abby arrived, her own finished reports in hand and looked up at what had the group's attention. "What? No way."

"Yeah, Abs, it's over. It's finally, really, over." Tim was smiling as he took in the changes on the wall. He didn't even flinch when Gibbs corrected him.

"It's never over, McGee. Another one will take his place, and sooner than we expect. You've been on the job long enough to know that."

Vance still had the bottle of bourbon he'd been given when he'd been made Director and couldn't think of a better reason to finally open it. "Come on up to my office everyone. I think we can stop working long enough to toast the Seals for a job well done."

-NCIS-

Toast made, the group fell silent. Unsurprisingly, it was Abby that started to reminisce first. "I'll never forget the day of the attack. Agents were rushing around like crazy. We were told to evacuate and then we were told to stay aboard the Yard. Director Morrow was at the Pentagon when it was hit and nobody knew if he was dead or alive for hours. Then, when he was finally able to get word to the agency, nobody came down to tell me."

Vance suspected it was the beginning of Abby's obsessive need to keep track of her favorite team. "That must have been very frightening."

Eyes bright with unshed tears, she nodded, still lost in thought. "I spent the entire day glued to ZNN, but it didn't seem real, you know? At least not until the DNA samples started arriving and they just kept coming and coming. I'd never run so many matches in my life. That first week I didn't go home at all, just started drinking Caf-Pow! to keep going."

"Baltimore was in a panic." Tony picked up the narrative when Abby quieted. "We were in a morning briefing when the first tower was hit. The brass was worried about panic even before we exactly knew what was happening. We were already in riot gear when it was confirmed to be a terrorist attack even if they didn't know who was responsible yet. Man, when Danny and I hit the street, I didn't know if we were going to be facing looters or armed foreign invaders. Instead, it was hundreds of terrified people trying to get out of the city." He deliberately forced from his mind the unanswered voice mails from his old partner that had been coming in the last few days.

Tony rubbed his forehead as he remembered the weight of the helmet he'd been wearing that muggy September morning. "The rumors were almost worse than what was already happening, but I remember seeing a group of FBI agents heading to New York and being so glad I was just a local cop."

Across the table Gibbs let out a snort and Tony had to laugh. "Yeah, then Gibbs showed up a few months later in Baltimore and the rest is history. What about you, Boss, where were you that morning?"

Gibbs downed the last of the bourbon and set his glass on the table. "I was in court." He ignored the undercurrent of laughter, the man's hatred of sitting in court was legendary. "Some of the prisoners tried to use the chaos of the evacuation to escape, and I convinced them otherwise." He fell silent as memories of that day flashed through his mind. There was no record of his afternoon at the Pentagon pulling survivors and bodies out of the rubble and he intended to keep it that way.

Inwardly, Vance smiled at Gibbs' omission. There might not be an official record of Gibbs' actions at the Pentagon that day, but he'd heard the details directly from former Director Morrow years ago. "I'm surprised Franks didn't show up. Didn't he resign because nobody took his warnings about Bin Laden seriously?"

"If someone had listened to him, the Cole would have never happened."

Startled by the anger in the younger man's voice, Gibbs turned to look at McGee for a moment before he answered Vance. "He tried, but they closed the border before he could get across."

Of everyone around the table, Ziva was pretty sure she was the only one to know the reasons for McGee's emotional response and she hoped to give him an opening, knowing he would not divulge such personal information on his own. "We were tracking a Hamas cell when the word came through. We were used to attacks and bombings in Israel, but to hear that they had hit inside the United States... we knew it would change the battle on a fundamental level. Officially, the Mossad was horrified by the attack, and most of us were, but there was a small faction that believed it could be a good thing."

Abby stared at her in shock. "Why would any of our allies think that was a good thing?"

Vance had heard about the rumblings through Eli David. "An attack on American soil forced the American people to face the problem."

"What about you, McGee? You were in Boston at college, is that correct?" Ziva's studying of the team when she was trying to stop Ari gave her knowledge about her teammate that none of the rest seemed to have.

"I was supposed to fly to Los Angeles that morning to present at a conference at UCLA, but my cab got broadsided and I missed my flight."

"Oh, Timmy." Abby teared up as she pressed her hand against her mouth.

Tony leaned forward. "Wait, you mean you were..."

"Booked on United Airlines flight 175, yeah." Tim shrugged. "I was on stand-by for another flight when it all happened. By the time I realized that the plane I was supposed to be on was involved, all the cell towers and land lines were jammed so I couldn't call my family. They evacuated the airport and by the time I got back to campus, the servers had crashed. I couldn't even email to tell my mom that I was safe."

"She and Sarah must have been very frightened."

McGee looked sharply at Ziva, realizing that she knew. "By the time phone service was restored, she was pretty hysterical."

"What about your dad?" Tony was surprised Tim hadn't mentioned his father.

Tim found the table top to be fascinating. "Dad's last posting was aboard the USS Cole."

"He was on the Cole when it was attacked?" As McGee's emotional reaction to the death of Bin Laden fell into place, Gibbs quickly skimmed what he knew about the attack. No McGees were among the fatalities. "Was he injured?"

"He, uh, he suffered third degree burns over forty percent of his body and a massive head injury." Tim rubbed at an imaginary spot on the table. "He'll never recover enough to leave the hospital."

Abby started to tear up once again. "Oh, Timmy, is that why you never talk about your dad?"

Tim shrugged slightly, clearly uncomfortable with what he had revealed. Instead of answering Abby, he turned to the Director with a question of his own. "Would it be all right if I call my mother? I'll make sure she doesn't tell anyone else before the official announcement, but I'd like her to hear about this from me instead of a stranger."

"Of course, McGee." Vance gave him an encouraging nod and the team watched as he left the room.

The door had barely closed before Abby opened her mouth, but Ziva beat her to it. "No, Abby, do not push him about this. He will talk when he is ready."

"But..."

"Ziva is right, Abs, leave it alone." Gibbs stared at her until she backed down. He knew it wasn't over, but for today it was. "Okay people, Bin Laden wasn't the only bad guy out there so let's get back to work."

Vance watched the group trail out as he thought about the last ten years and how much it had shaped the world. In the long run, Gibbs was right and another would soon take Bin Laden's place at the top of the wall, but today was a good day to honor his victims. He picked up his glass and turned towards the direction of the Pentagon and then New York before downing the last swallow. "Rest in peace, my friends, rest in peace."


End file.
